Presentations that are Easy on the Eyes

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Presentations that are Easy on the Eyes

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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June 1, 2017 at 9:04 pm

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Presentations that are Easy on the Eyes

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Japie Botma SSCrazy Points: 2990 More actions · Answer 1

I definitely prefer no background or light background. I come across it regularly in church that they use a background which makes reading strenuous to sometimes impossible. Showing my age?

5ilverFox
Consulting DBA / Developer
South Africa

David.Poole SSC Guru Points: 76000 More actions · Answer 2

I'm glad you called out that stuff on monitors doesn't necessarily work well on projectors.

The use of pail text on pastel colours simply doesn't work on projectors.
You need big fonts, strong and clear definition between foreground and background, small words, not many of them.

If you must illustrate code then keep it to the minimum required to get your point across.

If you want to share verbose information put it in the "notes" pane of your slides and share your deck after the presentation.

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purva.telang@gmail.com SSC Journeyman Points: 79 More actions · Answer 3

I really prefer no background or light background. I just hate RED background as it gives stress to Eyes. Yellow or Green background is very good if you really want to use a different background than no background.

for Presentation if you want some different coloring then use dark font colors but not background.

peter.row SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4319 More actions · Answer 4

I prefer dark themes all day long SSMS, Visual Studio, Windows 10, I find the typical white or very light grey backgrounds to be quite blinding, especially given the current vogue of lots of whitespace (pardon the pun) on websites etc...
Typically I think the problem with presentations is more often than not shit equipment and bad lighting.
Have you ever watched a movie with dark scenes and been sitting half way back from the front and thought - "I can't see anything that's going on?", I never have, I wear glasses and am turning 40 this year.

Presenters demo'ing code in SSMS/VS should know how to use the magnifier tools of their OS - or specifically in SSMS/VS just Ctrl-mouse wheel to scale the font size up and down - thus easy to see even if you're sitting at the back.

nitinbhojwani SSCrazy Points: 2117 More actions · Answer 5

I prefer light or subtle colours as background on all screens. For me, black text on white background is better than white text on black background.

For presentations, I believe, sometimes a few bright colours can help stress a point, but that's pretty much it.

Manie SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4568 More actions · Answer 6

I just love VS's black background theme to work on but don't think it is good in a presentation. I think a white or light grey background with dark (preferably black) letters will do it for me.

Manie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa

I am happy because I choose to be happy.
I just love my job!!!

smw147 SSCommitted Points: 1544 More actions · Answer 7

For day in day out coding I prefer a dark background with pastel like code colouring as it is a lot easier on the eyes. Here's an example of mine.

I was inspired by the same article as Steve when I read it about 6 months or so ago. Have to say since making this change, my eyes feel a lot less heavier after 8 hours staring at the screen every day.

Regards

Steve

Nick Ryan SSCrazy Points: 2237 More actions · Answer 8

When writing or reviewing code I prefer dark themes. Experience has shown that there's much less eye strain this way on an emissive screen and it's one of the first things that I change in any IDE - on a reflective display medium the reverse is true. When looking at code one often has to really stare at the screen, which is rather more stressful than just reading which is usually by comparison quite relaxing on the eyes as we don't have to concentrate on the exact characters, numbers or symbols in use. However when projecting code, it should be projected with a light background, not dark, and high contrast text colouration.

There are a few factors in play with presentations... or more accurately projected images (a PowerPoint file is *not* a presentation, it's an aid in a presentation). Firstly, a lot of creators of such things consider that if they can read text at 30cm away from their monitor then the text is large enough, it's not - a typical projected image is often comparable to looking at your desktop monitor from 2-3m away. Secondly, it's a projected image where there is no "black" or "dark", there is only comparitive darkness. A projection surface is nothing more than a white surface that reflects (scatters rather than actual reflection like a mirror) the light hitting it. It's not possible to project black therefore what is really happening is that our eyes are tricked into seeing a neighbouring bright area and interpreting the non-bright area as "dark" where in reality it's no darker than it was previously. As a result, attempting to project a dark image is an exercise in stupidity because what's really happening is that not much is being projected therefore there is very little contrast and therefore what is seen is very hard for a human eye to interpret.

I've had to demonstrate projectors in use on the odd occasion and one of the tricks that I did was to show people an image that consisted of a left black section and a right white section. Project this and you can demonstrate to viewers how the black isn't black at all through holding a piece of paper and moving it over the "edge" of the black image and asking what the difference between that and the rest of the projected surface was - none, unless your projector is leaky light wise and doesn't block black effectively. A similar test is to ask them to mask the white section with a solid object and look at the black half instead. Add a follow on image that has three panels, the centre being black and the left and right panels being white and you can demonstrate this further. Eventually most people get it (and then they put yellow text on a white background and we're back to using the clue-by-four...:) )

Stefan LG SSCommitted Points: 1936 More actions · Answer 9

Many years ago when we still coded in Pascal and used CGA monitors, the standard was something like a blue background, yellow for text, white for keywords and magenta for strings.

With the transition to Visual Studio, I initially carried on with this palette since it was familiar.
Later on I tried the darker backgrounds but now I only use a white background.

I sometimes take screenshots for documentation purposes and found that it works better with the lighter background.
It also saves ink if someone decides to print it out!

With SQL Management Studio I have never touched the colour settings, ever.
Default works fine for me.

Robert Sterbal SSChampion Points: 11050 More actions · Answer 10

This document: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/b-eye/choosing_colors.pdf is a good starter on the issue.

Here is a list of additional resources: http://www.stonesc.com/color/

412-977-3526 call/text

VeritableHero Old Hand Points: 302 More actions · Answer 11

Funny timing. I just used this information to change SSMS 17.1 over to a dark theme yesterday:
https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/136505-enable-dark-theme-in-sql-server-management-studio-2016

I'm still modifying it with my preferred font (Noto Mono) and color combinations, but I am finding I really like it. That is for every day use at my own workstation. I would think for presentations that a light / standard color scheme would be easier to read.

Aaron N. Cutshall SSCrazy Eights Points: 9011 More actions · Answer 12

Having grown up in the days of "green" screens (green text on dark screens), I've always preferred dark backgrounds and high-contract fonts for all-day working. My eyes have always been light-sensitive and the prevalence for blindingly white backgrounds and small text have always been a strain on my eyes which gets worse as the day gets longer. However as noted, that doesn't always work well on projectors and anything meant to be projected must be adjusted accordingly. Just because it looks great on a monitor doesn't imply it will look great on a projected screen regardless of the quality of the projector. I try to be mindful of this when I give presentations even if they are on large LCD/LED screens to accommodate those sitting further back from the screen. I'm not always successful and that's why I always seek feedback regarding the visibility of the presentation itself.

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thottle Old Hand Points: 353 More actions · Answer 13

In Visual Studio, I prefer working in the dark background, but not with SSIS or Management Studio. The latter may simply be that I've been too lazy to change it. The former is simply that was how I learned to work with SSIS.
For a presentation, however, where I'm going to be some distance from the screen, I need a white background.
And get off my lawn!

--- Remember, if you don't document your work, Apollo 13 doesn't come home.

latkinson SSCommitted Points: 1674 More actions · Answer 14

when working, I prefer lighter backgrounds and dark text. With my age and eyesight, it gives me the best visual contrast. But, when working on a presentation, here's something I was taught while taking a course on creating presentations. Supposedly, best practices suggest a blue background with yellow/gold text for slides and presentations as providing the best contrast for the eyes on a projection screen, while dark text on white background worked better on printed materials. It also pointed out the wisdom of understanding the difference in contrasts when displayed on a monitor vs being projected on a screen. This implies to me that when preparing slides for a presentation, you might need a couple of color schemes available to fit the audience and equipment available.

Luther